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Most parenting experts will tell you that routines are important for kids, because they provide children with a sense of predictability, security and control. They also make life a heck of a lot easier for parents who often rely on routines to get through the peak parenting-stress times of the day, like getting ready for school or going to bed at night. The added bonus, of course, is that routines give parents a chance to teach their kids important life skills and healthy habits, like how to brush their teeth or get themselves dressed.
So routines are great for kids. But guess what? They're great for the rest of us too. For pretty much the exact same reasons. Routines help us to:
- stay organized
- be productive
- prioritize goals
- manage/maximize time
- conserve brain power by making fewer mundane decisions
The fact is that most of us fall into routines of one kind or another whether we intend to or not (like vegging on the couch in front of the TV after work, or reaching for a late night snack). So why not be intentional about the routines we choose? Why not make sure that we're benefiting from the repetition that is inherent to day-to-day living?
Here are a few tips to help you establish an effective -- and manageable -- writing routine.
Block time
Author James Clear compiled a list of the daily routines of 12 famous writers. If you read through it, you see that most have a specific time that they write, usually early in the morning. If writing is high on your list of priorities, then you should tackle it first before your other daily distractions have time to take shape. This might mean waking up extra early to carve out a few hours of writing time or rearranging other morning commitments to make space.
Of course, not everyone is willing or able to start their day with their fingers on the keyboard, and that's okay. Like me, you might also find it difficult to dedicate a solid block of time to solely to writing, and may have to settle for snagging an hour here and an hour there. That's okay too. The key to establishing a writing routine isn't starting early or blocking large chunks of time. It's doing it consistently, at the same time each day or each week, so that when that time rolls around, you know "This is when I write."
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Break it down
There is nothing I hate more than trying to decide what to cook for supper after a long day at work. It's the worst. Yet, inevitably, my husband and I will fall into a routine where we spend every drive home having the same exhausting conversation.
"What do you want to eat?"
"I don't know. What do you want to eat?"
"I don't know."
The smart thing to do would be to create a meal plan at the start of the week so that we could focus on the day-to-day task of cooking without draining our remaining mental capacity making decisions about what to eat.
The same is true for writing. If you establish a routine of what to work on when, you don't have to waste precious writing time organizing your tasks and you'll be able to ensure you tackle your highest priority work first. For example, if you're a full-time writer, a morning may look like this:
8 a.m. -- Work on novel.
9:30 a.m. -- Check/respond to email.
9:45 a.m. -- Break.
10 a.m. -- Draft and post Steemit article.
11 a.m. -- Update social media.
11:30 a.m. -- Review novel progress.
12:30 a.m. -- Lunch.
If you're writing routine is more sporadically timed, a routine pattern of focus is even more useful because it helps you ensure key tasks aren't missed. For example, you might dedicate your morning writing minutes to novel writing, afternoons to Steemit, and evenings to updating social media.
Just do it
A routine is simply a series of habits. It takes an average of 66 days to form a new habit (not the 21-days touted by many self-help gurus). That may seem like a long time, but it doesn't mean 66 days of perfect habit-forming behaviour. In fact, research shows that breaking a new habit here and there doesn't really have an impact on the habit-forming process -- as long as you get right back into it as soon as you can.
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Want more good news? Once you've established a consistent, effective routine, you'll find that it's a lot easier to fall back into it after going off track. Which means you can allow yourself to take a break from your writing routine once in a while without worrying that you're throwing all your hard work out the window. You could even make taking a break from your routine part of your routine. ;-)
Do you have a writing routine? If so, how has it benefited your writing?
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